Everybody Knows What You Did Last Night

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The other day I snapped a pic of a comedic moment with my roommates and uploaded it via Facebook Mobile with the caption “Our dryer ties knots better than a boy scout.” Here’s the photo (starring my roommate Nick):

Then a couple nights ago I called Steve Bliss, one of my two co-authors on Virtual LEGO and guardian of the LDraw Parts Library. I haven’t talked to Steve in a couple years. When his wife Kristin learned it was me on the phone, she yelled across the room “your dryer ties knots?”

What a great practical reminder of the power of the Facebook newsfeed.

“Lifecasting,” or broadcasting your activities via the web and social networks like Facebook are fundamentally changing the way we relate to each other. This is both exciting and scary (and possibly even creepy depending on who you accept friend requests from). These tools have given us the power to passively stay “involved” in others’ lives without us even realizing it. It’s only surreal moments like these that serve to remind us of what we are active participants.

And for the record, both Steve and Kristin have recently made the cut to my new “trusted” privacy group on Facebook, so I don’t care what they know about my dryer’s activities.